Ranching For Wildlife by Vito Quatraro

Sportsmen are constantly complaining about “Privatization and Commercialization” of our wildlife resources.  “Ranching for Wildlife” is another common phrase used to denote the takeover of our wildlife resources by private sources.

What does “Ranching for Wildlife” often look like?  What comes to my mind is allocating tags/vouchers to landowners that can be sold to the highest bidder and special seasons outside the general hunting season for that species.

Fast forward to Montana and the current proposals being considered by the FWP Commission and Dept of FWP.  First, shoulder seasons for elk, outside the traditional 11 week archery/rifle seasons, that could include the taking of bull elk.  Second, an Amendment to the current ARM rules to allow the Dept. to use lists provided by landowners to designate up to 100% of the hunters allowed to hunt on their lands during game damage hunts and management seasons.

At the FWP public meeting on the game damage rule changes, under questioning, Alan Charles admitted that there is no rule or law that would prohibit a landowner from charging a fee to hunters wishing to participate in game damage hunts, shoulder seasons or management hunts on their land.

Let’s add up what is being proposed.  Special seasons which could include bull elk; landowners could get to choose who hunts on their land; and there is nothing to stop the landowner for charging a fee to hunt on their private land during these special seasons/management hunts.  Seems to meet the criteria for “RANCHING FOR WILDLIFE”!!

It was apparent last night at the FWP game damage public comment meeting that they were not interested in hearing what we had to say.  There were only 5 people from Regions 2, 3 & 4 at the hearing which was skyped into each of those Regional headquarters.  The gal with Alan Charles had the gall to put a 2 minute maximum for comments from the audience, which only confirms these meetings are held to meet the process requirements not to consider our comments.  This is consistent with what Paul Sihler told a group in Butte on an issue, that though they asked for public comments, they were not taken into consideration by the FWP in making their decision.  The game damage amendments are not even being heard by the FWP Commission but will only be decided by FWP in Helena. 

It should be noted that at last night’s meeting, not a single sportsmen organization was represented or made comments.  Hopefully, they are weighing in via written comments.  The lack of advertisement of the meeting and extremely poor attendance should be of concern to the sportsmen of Montana.

As a side note, last November, Director Hagener established an interim policy changing ARM rule 12.9.804A pertaining to how hunters are selected for game damage and management hunts.  This may have been in violation of the above code.  In that Memorandum, it allows up to 25% of the hunters to be selected by the landowner.  Personally, I think allowing the landowner to choose 25% of the hunters is a good idea, provided no bull elk hunting is allowed.

The sportsmen of Montana are being duped by the FWP leadership in Helena.  Contrary to what some sportsmen have been saying, this is not being brought forth by legislators, landowners, outfitters or MOGA!  All of these proposals are moving forward with the approval and at the direction of FWP Director Hagener and his leadership team in Helena!!  It is time that sportsmen stand up to the Dept and hold them accountable.  Science based wildlife management has taken a back seat to increasing revenues, “social tolerance” and personal agendas.

The applicable statutes/ARM rules for the game damage rules are:

         

          87-1-225; 12.9.803; 12.9.804; 12.9.804A; 12.9.805; 12.9.1101

I see lots of emails that say our wildlife problems/issues are being caused by FWP, landowners, ranchers, legislators and MOGA.  These are labels that lump all individuals within these groups as the problem.  This is grossly unfair to some very good people within each group. 

There are some excellent folks who work for FWP but due to the current “culture of fear”, which I heard mentioned at the game damage meeting in Bozeman, are unable to speak up.  There are landowners and ranchers that are good stewards of the land/wildlife who participate in working on solutions to the problems that exist today.  The same can be said of legislators.  While some like to target MOGA, they never differentiate between private land outfitters and public land outfitters.  There is a huge difference between the two.  Anyone who has spent time with a public land outfitter knows the work, effort and hunting experience they provide for their clients.  Every group mentioned has some good people that truly care about our wildlife resources and are willing to work toward solutions that create a win-win scenario for all parties involved.

By lumping people together, we are also insulting some of the very people that could be our best allies as we move forward.  Every profession or group has their good, bad and ugly members.  The trick is to align with the good while at the same time calling out the bad/ugly.

There is a basic rule for good negotiating: “attack the issues but not the individuals”, but I believe that there is at least one valid exception to that rule.  When the issue is the people, then they must be held accountable.

FWP, Landowners, Ranchers, Legislators and MOGA are merely categories, not individual people.  I believe that we should be using names to identify those individuals within the above categories that are responsible for creating the problems we are facing today.  A good example is the Wilks brothers, who we have no problem calling out by name, over their attempts to control hunting in the Durfee hills, dictate hunting policy, etc and we have no problem calling out some legislators by name.  Why are we not doing this with FWP???  By not using names, the offending individuals can hide within the groups label without having to be held accountable for their actions.  No one likes to be publicly attacked, but when all else has failed and they are the decision makers, what other option is left??  It is not meant to be an attack on them as people, but as an attack on their decision making and/or motives.

Vito


EMWH note: personally, I am not in favor of landowners choosing hunters for a list. With a game damage program in such disarray, lack of oversight and compliance, as the audit showed, including matters of the Hunt Roster, FWP has  decided again to alter the roster process to conform to their noncompliant actions by adding, " or lists of names supplied by landowners" in a number of places and striking from ARM 12.9.1101, "If sufficient numbers of hunters cannot be identified through use of the game damage hunt roster,". This is a clear indication that they favor the landowner supplied lists, instead of utilizing the democratic hunt roster.

FWP's Game Damage Hearing Process

After spending much time on the FWP's proposed amendment to Game Damage, and the interconnecting subject of their Elk Shoulder Seasons subject, we witnessed the public hearings on the 11th and 12th of August. The meetings were set up with Helena as the homebase. There was a legislative services employee and FWP's Alan Charles, Landowner Sportsmen Coordinator. 

First, Alan Charles gave a brief overview of why they felt the need for the rule changes. Then there was a question period where each of the satellite offices could ask a number of questions, with Alan Charles answering the questions posed. Finally, they gave each person only 2 minutes to make a public comment. You were also told that you could submit additional comments in writing. 

On the 11th the Helena location had 3 sportsmen attend: Gayle Joslin (retired FWP and Helena Hunters and Anglers spokesperson), Jim Posewitz (retired FWP and HHAA) and Rod Bullis. Joslin and Bullis spoke against the amendment. Joslin's comments on behalf of Helena Hunters and Anglers, as well as her perspective as a former FWP wildlife biologist, who worked with the game damage program are linked below. The Billings meeting had 5 hunters attend and comment, generally opposing the amendment: Ron Moody, John Gibson, Tom Madden and Bob Allen, all commenting for themselves, also JW Westman for Laurel Rod & Gun Club. The satellite hearings in Kalispell, Glasgow and Miles City did not have any commenters.

On August 12th, the Missoula satellite saw Tim Aldrich begin his comment voicing concern, only to be cut off because of the 2 minute limit. In Bozeman we had Vito Quatraro, Rob Gregoire, myself (Kathryn QannaYahu, hearing comment below) and Dr. Bill Mealer, opposed to the bulk, if not all of the amendment. This morning saw Vito writing about his concerns over this process - Ranching For Wildlife.

Many of us did not know about this proposed rule change until a couple weeks ago. At the hearing last night, I filled out a paper I have never seen at an FWP meeting before - an  FWP Interested Persons List form. You can check off the subjects of interest to you, when they make these formal rule changes, you are then notified. So I called our local FWP office and got a copy sent to me and put it online for download. Please take the take to fill one out and mail it in. This way we wont be caught short on future situations.

Also, public comment deadline for this Game Dmage Proposed Amendment is August 21st. Please send comments to fwpgamedamagearms@mt.gov  or in writing to: Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Wildlife Division, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT  59620-0701.

More concerning, was my call to Legislative Services yesterday morning to find out the process. So we have made our comments, now what? Here is what happens next - First, FWP will review the comments received and decide whether to pursue the amendment, modify it or go forward as planned, this is slated to be a couple of weeks. If they go forward as planned, they can totally ignore all testimony at the hearings and any comments submitted in writing, if they choose, filing a final adoption notice with the Montana Secretary of State, who then publishes it. That's it! No other way to stop this, short of litigation against FWP. Except, we may have one possible avenue, the EQC. The Environmental Quality Council is over the FWP during the interim legislature. They have a meeting coming up on Sept. 9th & 10th, the agenda is not fixed and published yet. I'm looking into this now and have spoken with a handful of other hunters that know members.

Game Damage Public Hearing Helena Hunters & Anglers 8/11/2015
Game Damage Comment - Gayle Joslin, retired FWP  8/11/2015 (small quote below)
Game Damage 2nd Comment Helena Hunters & Anglers 8/12/2015

 
I was employed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks for 30 years as a wildlife biologist, the last 20 of that for the Helena Area. I dealt with numerous game damage complaints and implemented several game damage hunts, provided stackyards, kill permits, and aversive conditioning devices. I kept excellent records that came in very handy. All of the landowners that received assistance through me provided public hunting opportunities. There were several other folks that requested assistance but did not meet the criteria, and so did not receive materials or hunts, but we would discuss ways to deal with their circumstances.

I point this out because during all the game damage hunts, I never had trouble recruiting hunters, through the process that we had in place at the time.

I am quite concerned with the notion that landowners would be allowed to develop their own exclusive list of hunters, and thus the real possibility that the general public may be excluded from game damage hunts or management seasons. As the proposed regulations are now phrased, this is a real possibility. Montana’s wildlife is stewarded as a Public Trust on behalf of the state’s citizens by FWP. Exclusive use of landowner-generated hunter lists would be a breach of that responsibility.

Kathryn QannaYahu Hearing Comment on ARM amendment proposal for Game Damage August 12, 2015 

I oppose this proposed amendment. I feel it is simply a response to legitimize the illegal and unregulated actions FWP has been committing, per the May 2015, Legislative Services performance audit on FWP's Game Damage Program.

The following are quotes from the 56 page audit:

"Overall, we found 82 percent of game damage complaint files had missing or incomplete complaint forms or landowner eligibility worksheets. Audit work found documentation was problematic in every region we visited."

"Several landowners received game damage assistance though documentation indicated they were not eligible... having limited or no public hunting access…,"

"there needs to be more supervisory oversight and responsibility over regional game damage program activities... the department could not always provide documentation showing the department director or the local commissioner approved game damage hunts and management seasons prior to implementation. "

"For most hunts and seasons the department allowed landowners to select between 25 to 50 percent of the hunters, with the remainder selected from the game damage hunt roster... one example allowed a landowner to select all of the hunters."
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Concerning the striking of "season" replaced by "hunt" - seasons requires the public commission process, the votes of the whole commission, submission of written and oral public comments; management "hunts" only requires the regional supervisor and commissioner to sign off on it, no public process. This ambiguous proposal to alter the hunt roster by adding, “date to be specified", “or lists of names supplied by landowners" is a threat to the public trust.

With a game damage program in such disarray, lack of oversight and compliance, this amendment proposal is a step towards privatization, continued abuses involving preferential treatment, rather than focusing on compliance to existing game damage laws.Thank you. 

For futher information, please see - Game Damage Isn't Broken, It's Not Properly Being Used by FWP 

Kathryn QannaYahu, Enhancing Montana's Wildlife & Habitat